Edmund Goulding

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Edmund Goulding (born March 20, 1891 in Feltham , England , † December 24, 1959 in Los Angeles , California ) was a British-American film director and screenwriter.

Life

Edmund Goulding began an acting career in London at the age of twelve, and later achieved tolerable success as a writer and theater director. After demilitarization, he went to the USA in 1919 and began writing screenplays in Hollywood from 1921 . He made his debut as a film director in 1923 when he adapted his own novel Fury for the screen. A short time later he was able to celebrate a great success on Broadway with the play Dancing Mothers . The turning point came in 1925 when he was signed to MGM as a writer and director. With the film Sally, Irene and Mary , which was shot on a modest budget, he immediately had great success. The careers of the two leading actresses Constance Bennett and Joan Crawford received a huge boost from the film. With the exception of the film Anna Karenina , which showed the well-known screen couple John Gilbert and Greta Garbo in a very watered-down version of the classic, his career in silent film was rather disappointing. It was only with the advent of the talkie that Goulding was able to develop his elegant visual style further and he quickly specialized in melodramas and dramatic love stories. In 1930 he had a great success with The Devil's Holiday . The film tells the love story between a prostitute, played by Nancy Carroll , and a thief, Phillips Holmes , who try to build a future together despite their past. Nancy Carroll was nominated for an Oscar for her performance . Some time later, Goulding made a monumental flop with Carroll with The Night Angel , whose excessive budget reached $ 600,000 in the end and whose failure with audiences and press ended Nancy Carroll's career as a Paramount star.

Even so, he was hired by MGM to direct Menschen im Hotel , the first film with a star cast , in 1932 . Soon he was considered one of the best "women directors" in the industry and after the success of That Certain Woman , a love story between Bette Davis and Henry Fonda , he made a few more films with Bette Davis. Under his direction, she gave in 1939 in Dark Victory a soulful and restrained interpretation of a woman who dies from an incurable disease and may still experience the great love before her death. With Luck Swapped , again starring Davis, Goulding began a series of films in 1941 that were very successful both commercially and artistically. Love sorrow showed Joan Fontaine in one of her best roles as an unhappily in love young woman. Claudia , the film adaptation of a popular play, made Dorothy McGuire a star in 1943 . On the other hand, Die Scharlatan and Der Scharlatan , two films starring Tyrone Power , were film noirs that shed light on the depths of the human soul. After 1947 Goulding slowly made fewer films, including the star-studded comedy We're Not Married at All from 1952. Towards the end of his life, he also made occasional directors on television. Goulding's last work was the hit film Blue Nights with Pat Boone .

Edmund Goulding died on Christmas Eve 1959 during heart surgery at the age of 68. He was married to actress Marjorie Moss from 1931 until her death in 1935.

Filmography (selection)

literature

  • Matthew Kennedy: Edmund Goulding's Dark Victory. Hollywood's Genius Bad Boy. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, WI et al. 2004, ISBN 0-299-19770-0 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Goulding, Edmund
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British-American film director
DATE OF BIRTH March 20, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH Feltham , England
DATE OF DEATH December 24, 1959
Place of death los Angeles